November 26, 2004

Every Wednesday, I like to post some annotated highlights to that week's Christian Carnival. Starting this week, I'm also going to start highlighting some of the posts I've read throughout the blogosphere.

Joe Carter at Evangelical Outpost has given up on commercial radio. I happen to agree with him on this one, having largely ditched both secular and "Christian" radio in favour of the (liberal) CBC, although to be fair, our local news/talk station is also not the conservative monolith that it appears Clear Channel is in the states.

Now that the two media behemoths Clear Channel and Infinity Broadcasting own every FCC license in the Western Hemisphere, commercial radio has consolidated into one monolithic blanket of banality . Even those of us who are fortunate enough to live in a major radio market (I live in Dallas/Ft.Worth) have few real choices on our radio dials. . . .

Fortunately, I still have another option available. There’s a place on my radio dial that I can turn to hear news, current events, intelligent conversation, and the latest on politics and culture; an oasis amidst the desert of the airwaves. And no, it’s not talk radio. It’s better. It’s NPR.

. . . I would like to indicate that I do not wish to discredit the 12,000 people who made decisions at the Billy Graham crusade or to cast doubt on their conversion, for that is a matter between them and the Lord. I also do not wish to vilify those who practice such forms of crusades. I wish merely to examine the concept of decision and altar calls in light of the Scripture.

Uh . . . yeah. If only people would stop reading the Bible, they would be able to appreciate the Puritan John Milton, author of what is arguably the greatest work of English literature: Paradise Lost, the epic about the fall of man as described in the Bible. The mind boggles.

Eric Svendsen at Real Clear Theology Blog tells us how we can get on the grilled-relic bandwagon and make some real coin:

A while back I wrote a blog piece on the exorbitant speaker fees of Roman Catholic apologists, and suggested at that time that it was the Roman Catholic equivalent of a "pet rock"-like money-making scheme. For those of you who decided that might be a good way to make money, don't waste your time. There's now a better pet rock that you can take advantage of. It costs much less in terms of preparation time and effort. All you need is a griddle, some butter, a loaf of bread and a stack of individually wrapped slices of cheese.

Finally, Brian Micklethwait found a very striking photo of a Houston church completely dwarfed by a modern office building. (The church, incidentally, is Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, the oldest black congregation in Houston.)